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(eventual reflections on last night's “Smallville” episode)
On my way home from work last night, I decided to see if I could improve my luck and my mood by using my “free movie” voucher to take in a rare evening showing. I ended up seeing “The Corpse Bride” on the recommendation of a friend (and yes, I WAS strongly tempted to just go see “Serenity” again, ‘cause it’s that good), which wasn’t bad at all.
The plot was fairly obvious within the first 5 minutes, and the music wasn’t anything memorable (or even understandable, at times: whenever more than one voice was singing, it was impossible to make out the lyrics, I found, leading me to wonder if everybody in the cast had recorded their singing in separate sections, because otherwise even non-musicians try to blend together better than that), but I was amused by the characters, the recognizable voices, and the movie in-jokes, and I quite enjoyed watching the animation, which seemed to me to be very well-done.
Plus, I found a dollar bill on the carpet on my way into the theater and no-one else inside that screening room when I arrived, so I couldn’t (as I fully planned to do) ask if anyone there had dropped a dollar on their way in. So, the movie was free, and I came out a dollar ahead. Sounds like a pretty darn good evening to me.
All of which is to explain why I had to watch last night’s episode of "Smallville" on tape after I got home from the theater. Since I knew James Marsters wouldn’t appear again until about the fourth or fifth episode of this season, I didn’t mind the delay.
And yet, I liked last night’s episode far more than I expected to. I liked watching Clark enjoying the novel experience of being tired and sore after a hard day’s barn-raising, and being “just plain folks,” forced to rely on the help of his friends and neighbors, like the rest of us. And I liked seeing Chloe get to be the senior partner on their heroic foray into Level Three, having to teach Clark the basics of ordinary human espionage, while Clark got to experience what it feels like to discover that your closest friend hasn’t shared all of her big secrets with you. It seemed like a thorough reversal of the usual power dynamics between Clark and Chloe, and I liked it.
Plus, Chloe is shaping up nicely into a MacGyver-type hero (I well remember MacGyver using that same fingerprint-lifting technique to get past a thumb-scan lock in the episode where he teamed up with Murdoc to rescue Murdoc’s sister). Go, Chloe!
I especially enjoyed the way Clark ended up applying Chloe’s MacGyver-esque smart-but-as-low-tech-as-feasible-and-straight-to-the-heart-of-the-matter philosophy of “Sometimes it’s easier just to turn the power off.”
And, with Clark’s own powers apparently turned off for the foreseeable future (at least, long enough for him and Lana to have their oh-so-special-carpe-noctem consummation), he was able to not only confound Lex’s best-laid trap to acquire proof of his abilities, but to confront Lex and bring their new adversarial relationship into focus in the most basic way possible, with no secrets to protect and no fear that he might seriously injure Lex.
Interesting. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but considering how much time and energy I’ve put into trying to protect myself from the power of others (even avoiding personal relationships out of fear of giving anyone else so much power over me, so much ability to hurt me through rejection or betrayal) and build up my own sense of power (which, of course, I only use for defensive purposes), I found it really refreshing to have all my expectations turned upside down.
To see power as a weakness, a vulnerability (even apart from the sub-theme of the escapees having become addicted to the power boost they got from the green stuff), something that keeps you apart from the people you love and blinds you to the real strengths and gifts of your friends (or completely isolates you, as Lex attempted to do with Lionel in the opening scenes, and as Lex himself had become completely isolated and friendless by the end of the episode, because of his obsession with power)—well, to quote Spike from the season 2 “Halloween” episode of BtVS, that’s “just . . . neat!”
On my way home from work last night, I decided to see if I could improve my luck and my mood by using my “free movie” voucher to take in a rare evening showing. I ended up seeing “The Corpse Bride” on the recommendation of a friend (and yes, I WAS strongly tempted to just go see “Serenity” again, ‘cause it’s that good), which wasn’t bad at all.
The plot was fairly obvious within the first 5 minutes, and the music wasn’t anything memorable (or even understandable, at times: whenever more than one voice was singing, it was impossible to make out the lyrics, I found, leading me to wonder if everybody in the cast had recorded their singing in separate sections, because otherwise even non-musicians try to blend together better than that), but I was amused by the characters, the recognizable voices, and the movie in-jokes, and I quite enjoyed watching the animation, which seemed to me to be very well-done.
Plus, I found a dollar bill on the carpet on my way into the theater and no-one else inside that screening room when I arrived, so I couldn’t (as I fully planned to do) ask if anyone there had dropped a dollar on their way in. So, the movie was free, and I came out a dollar ahead. Sounds like a pretty darn good evening to me.
All of which is to explain why I had to watch last night’s episode of "Smallville" on tape after I got home from the theater. Since I knew James Marsters wouldn’t appear again until about the fourth or fifth episode of this season, I didn’t mind the delay.
And yet, I liked last night’s episode far more than I expected to. I liked watching Clark enjoying the novel experience of being tired and sore after a hard day’s barn-raising, and being “just plain folks,” forced to rely on the help of his friends and neighbors, like the rest of us. And I liked seeing Chloe get to be the senior partner on their heroic foray into Level Three, having to teach Clark the basics of ordinary human espionage, while Clark got to experience what it feels like to discover that your closest friend hasn’t shared all of her big secrets with you. It seemed like a thorough reversal of the usual power dynamics between Clark and Chloe, and I liked it.
Plus, Chloe is shaping up nicely into a MacGyver-type hero (I well remember MacGyver using that same fingerprint-lifting technique to get past a thumb-scan lock in the episode where he teamed up with Murdoc to rescue Murdoc’s sister). Go, Chloe!
I especially enjoyed the way Clark ended up applying Chloe’s MacGyver-esque smart-but-as-low-tech-as-feasible-and-straight-to-the-heart-of-the-matter philosophy of “Sometimes it’s easier just to turn the power off.”
And, with Clark’s own powers apparently turned off for the foreseeable future (at least, long enough for him and Lana to have their oh-so-special-carpe-noctem consummation), he was able to not only confound Lex’s best-laid trap to acquire proof of his abilities, but to confront Lex and bring their new adversarial relationship into focus in the most basic way possible, with no secrets to protect and no fear that he might seriously injure Lex.
Interesting. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but considering how much time and energy I’ve put into trying to protect myself from the power of others (even avoiding personal relationships out of fear of giving anyone else so much power over me, so much ability to hurt me through rejection or betrayal) and build up my own sense of power (which, of course, I only use for defensive purposes), I found it really refreshing to have all my expectations turned upside down.
To see power as a weakness, a vulnerability (even apart from the sub-theme of the escapees having become addicted to the power boost they got from the green stuff), something that keeps you apart from the people you love and blinds you to the real strengths and gifts of your friends (or completely isolates you, as Lex attempted to do with Lionel in the opening scenes, and as Lex himself had become completely isolated and friendless by the end of the episode, because of his obsession with power)—well, to quote Spike from the season 2 “Halloween” episode of BtVS, that’s “just . . . neat!”
(no subject)
Have I ever mentioned that I often get more out of your analysis than the episodes themselves?
(no subject)
But your encouragement to keep on looking for connections is very welcome!
(no subject)
Saw a brief flash of James in the scenes from upcoming episodes, and you can bet I'm looking forward to his reappearance!
(no subject)
And thanks for seconding my opinion of that episode. Last night's episode, by contrast, was cute and funny in parts, but just not that well-written or interesting.